Dorte Madsen receives Best paper JASIST 2016 award

MSC researcher, Associate Professor Dorte Madsen, receives the Best Paper 2016 JASIST award.

Motivation for the award

The Association for Information Science and Technology, ASIS&T, brings the following motivation for the award, which is given for the paper 'Liberating Interdisciplinarity from Myth:  An Exploration of the Discursive Construction of Identities in Information Studies':

The 2016 Best Paper in the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology is “Liberating Interdisciplinarity from Myth:  An Exploration of the Discursive Construction of Identities in Information Studies” by Dr. Dorte Madsen of the Copenhagen Business School.  This conceptual paper uses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to shed brighter light on interdisciplinarity in Information Studies, rigorously applying wide literatures about interdisciplinarity in science studies, education, and beyond.  Use of CDA in Information Studies is uncommon, and this method particularly makes the paper thought-provoking and innovative.

Madsen provides a well-reasoned critique of the widely shared assumption (a long-standing “’historical anxiety’” in Ron Day’s words) in Information Studies that the field must erect strong boundaries around a theoretically stable and unitary core.  Madsen shows how this purported need is “premised on an ideal,” mistaken in its foundation and its application to the fragmentation of the discipline.  Using CDA and the vigorous, if distinguishable, iSchool movement as counterarguments, the paper illustrates the necessity of overcoming this “discourse of the weak discipline” [emphasis in the original].  The paper provides a strong tonic against self-imposed doubt and calls for more conceptually focused research in interdisciplinarity in the field, for an affirmation of the openness of Information Studies, and for the epistemological strength of such openness. (ASIS&T: Best JASIST Paper Award).

The paper can be accessed through the Wiley Online Library here.

Presentation of the award

The award will be presented at the ASIS&T 80th Annual Meeting, October 27 - November 1, 2017, in Washington D.C.